It has been noted that using imported high-end medical devices in complex disease management highly inflates a patient’s bill. Around 75 per cent of the bill is incurred by the usage of imported devices. In comparison, India-developed low-end devices currently constitutes only 5 per cent of a patient’s bill.
The expenditure and our dependence on imported medical devices can be curbed if the government allows Indian manufactures to start producing high-end medical devices, noted senior cardiologists from across the country. They have gathered at the three-day National Interventional Council organised by the Cardiological Society of India, which will conclude today.
Dr. Praveen Chandra, chairman, interventional cardiology, Medanta Heart Institute, also the organising secretary of the conference said: “For the first time in a medical conference in India, we have facilitated doctors and industry from India to interact on a common platform and have discussion to work closely and purposefully towards developing a more self-reliant country in manufacturing high-end medical devices.”
Stating that the Indian medical device industry is developing very fast, he noted that the cost benefit that Indian manufactures are offering is immense.
“Indian doctors have been using it for the past 15 years and they opine that the products’ standards have evolved to match international quality. There was a ray of hope in India for affordable stents when former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam came out with a stent called Kalam-Raju Stent that could be manufactured for Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,000. This stent was never patronised and plans to further do research and improve the stent were shelved. In India, U.S. multinationals dominate with more than 70 per cent market share with a price range of Rs. 45,000 to Rs. 1.20 lakh per stent,’’ he said.
Manufactures, too, add that India has the potential of making high-end medical devices for the management of complex diseases and thus bring down the patients’ bills considerably.
“To be self-reliant, the government can help us by creating industry-friendly infrastructure and giving us subsidies,’’ noted Mr. Gurmit Singh Chug, managing director, Translumina Theraputics.
“India has always been considered to manufacture low-end and low-cost products with no clinical evidence to prove their efficacy. This now holds untrue. A drug-eluting stent manufactured in India called YUKON PC was reported to be equally safe and efficacious by three acclaimed international journals, namely the Journal of American College of Cardiology, European Heart Journal and EuroIntervention ,’’ he added.